The Case for Theism

[genkaus]

You would probably do well to read some popular science articles on the theory of evolution, they will give you a broad overview in language that will be palatable for you. The emergence of single cell life and its subsequent evolution into complex life forms is not a simple one-step process that can be encapsulated in one word.

Perhaps you should tell that to my opponent. He's the one trying to encapsulate it into a one phrase.

Adopting a semantic approach is somewhat disingenuous as the word does not determine the process. You could call it 'colin" for all it matters, the process would still carry on the way it has for millions of years.

Now that is something that would be disingenuous. Words are what we use to label and identify concepts. A semantic approach is necessary to ensure correct identification - otherwise we'd have no idea whether we are discussing the same topic or not.

There are more accurate words that could be employed to describe the process you are discussing, 'filtering', 'sieveing', 'sifting' all describe the process better than the word 'selection', but even these are not exact in isolation.

Then let him employ those and I'd respond in kind.